Some colorful homes that caught my eye. Clockwise from upper left: Oakland, CA; Long Island, NY; Austin, TX; and two in Takoma Park, MD.
After all these years of garden-writing with no ability to tag my photos for later use, my life has changed. When GardenRanter Ben wrote about garden photography I learned that he and I use the same photo editor (Faststone), which doesn’t allow for tagging. So I asked Ben about this problem and learned that he adds tag words to the file names and then uses Windows Explorer to find the photos he’d tagged. Whaaaa?
More evidence of my ignorance followed. When I told Marianne Willburn this big news, she said basically “Oh yeah, me, too, and you can just use Windows to edit photos, too.” Wait – there’s no need for an actual editing program anymore???
So with all this exciting information I browsed my thousands of garden photos and tagged the hell out of them – for specific plants, for garden features like seating or sculpture, and for house colors that add so much to front-yard gardens. And when the garden isn’t much to look at, paint can still make the scene pop, all year round.
Above, I love almost all the colors on these homes in the college town of Oberlin, Ohio. I love the spirit that inspired all of them.
Clockwise from upper left: Washington, DC; Green Springs Garden in Arlington, VA; two on my former street in Takoma Park, MD.
In the group above, even some burnt-orange panels behind some plants make quite a statement. The Modern blue+cream combo on the left is wildly unpopular with the neighbors but not because of the colors. It’s whatever you’d call that architecture that they object to. On a street filled with bungalows and Victorians.
Finally, my current house in Greenbelt, MD, where I tolerated the truly ugly, 1980s siding for far too long! I even carried the dull grey into the pillars that hold up wires for vines.
Then in 2020 I had the siding removed, the original cinder block facade restored and painted my favorite colors among the choices for my co-op. Now almost any photo of the garden with the house as the backdrop is a winner in my eyes because I chose colors I LOVE. I think that’s the key.
And why stop at colors on the house?
What were originally BLACK pots are now a mint green to match the house trim. Other pots I’ve spray-painted TURQUOISE to match the homemade pavers. And old-timey chairs I had actually painted BLACK are now an eye-catching FUSCHIA!
After unleashing my love of rich colors in the garden, I’m never going back to basic black or grey again.
MORE Garden Features
These photo collections started when I learned (from GardenRanter Ben) that I could search for tags just using Windows Explorer – no extra software! So began a fun winter project – scrolling through thousands of photos taken over at least 20 years, and tagging the hell out of them. For my enjoyment and yours. The others are:
Amen sister!!!
I’m glad you brought up this topic. I embrace color even colors I’m not fond of, if it makes a person happy. I’m glad you were able to paint your current house in a color more pleasing than grey. Your painted pots and furniture are nice accents. I also recognize the purple house in Austin.–Very cute. The owner dared to be different.
My new-to-me old house came with several dilapidated sheds sided in Oriented Strand Board (OSB). OSB isn’t meant for use as siding so the OSB had deteriorated along the bottom of both sheds, plus both sheds had structural and roofing issues. I thought of tearing them down, but the cost was high.
This year, I decided to tackle repair of these sheds. I hired a handyman who did a great job, but his services weren’t free. When I realized I had 4 gallons of never-opened exterior paint purchased to paint my former shed, I decided to use them.
To my surprise, instead of being brown as shown on the paint chip, the color was orange. The sheds are now shocking. You could never miss them. I’m like, “Oh my!!!” Just did this last week. 🙂 Thankfully, they’re in the backyard.
I’m making the best of it. Blue salvias, yellow irises and cannas complement orange, right? The color is actually a burnt-orange, so it could be worse. I’m working to make them cute, if that’s possible. (One shed has 4 bullet holes in a window. Used to be a tough area 40 years ago. Not certain how to make bullet holes cute.) I dare to be different, but by accident.
Re: the bullet holes – stick painted corks in them, then paint daisy-petals around them?
Colours rule!
Why have a beige or (gasp!) black house when it could be turquoise or fuschia?
I also like color, but ooh…but so many colors of flowers and variegated foliage would really look great against a black house!
For some reason I only love colorful homes in the Caribbean. When I see an old Victorian repainted a bright color it’s painful. I can only imagine its grandeur in its prime. But to each their own. Personally I love white or cream painted wood or brick (French Country style). Flowers and greenery pop against the backdrop.